Editorials / Opinion

STATE government should not be in the business of electing Democratic and Republican precinct committee officers. Political parties are private organizations. They should choose their own agents.

The argument for PCO elections is that they connect the parties with the public. This is a good thing, but the parties have other ways of doing it. They could, for instance, use the presidential caucuses. They do not require free access to the ballot.

This issue has been fought over for years. Because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the blanket primary, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour has ruled that elections of PCOs were unconstitutional the way the state did them.

It was wrong, he ruled, to allow Democrats to vote for Republican party officers, and vice versa. Responding to the ruling, Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, decided the state had no legal way to do PCO elections.

The parties asked the Legislature to create a new way to conduct PCO elections. The latest version of the bill, SSHB 1860, sponsored by Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, would put PCOs on the ballot only in contested races, which happens only about 3 percent of the time. Under the bill, a voter could check a box to say he was a Democrat to vote for a Democratic PCO, etc.

Earlier versions of the bill would have given the voter's name to his party, so that the party could dun him for funds. The bill that on Friday cleared the House General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee would make the voter's party selection private.

Private is better. The voters of Washington do not want to be publicly identified as party members.

Still, it would be best to not have PCOs on the ballot at all. These are not public offices, and the public should not have to pay for them.